


Another Path

by Lancre_witch



Category: Legacy of Kain
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/F, Kain has a bit part and somehow manages to be more of a bastard than he is in canon, at least if you call Blood Omen 2 canon, because there isn't enough f/f in this fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 02:48:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15354564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lancre_witch/pseuds/Lancre_witch
Summary: One thing everyone argees on is that Umah deserved better. This is one way it might have happened.





	Another Path

“Any change?” Vorador asked.

Umah shook her head. “The explosion destroyed half the industrial quarter. He cannot be roused, but sometimes he says things, just on the edge of hearing. Do they mean anything to you, sire?”

She passed him a scrap of paper with the scribbled notes she had made of his addled mutterings. _Ancient device deep underground… history rewritten in our image… a new reign will begin._ Vorador pursed his lips and glanced at the still unconscious Kain. “We cannot wait for him to wake. Long ago, a race sought to conquer Nosgoth with the aid of subterranean machines of great power. If the Sarafan have truly found one of them, it could spell disaster. Go to the canyons, find the Seer. She is an old friend and I only pray she will give you the answers we need. And Umah” – he held out the nexus stone – “take this.”

*

A clink of steel on stone and the man on the delivery wagon looked around fearfully. A moment later, he was pulled from his seat with a muffled scream. Umah dropped his bloodless body and flitted out of the open gates. The canyons stretched out ahead of her.

A moment later, she pressed herself against the wall and turned her hooded face away from the Sarafan patrol which passed within feet of her. Only once they turned the corner and their footsteps faded did she dare to breathe again, not that she needed to fear them. Humans never looked, barely stepped out of their own heads, even when their lives depended upon it. Clad as she was in a dozen shades of grey, she could slip past them like a ghost.

The bandits in the canyon proved to be even less trouble than she had expected. Huddled around the fire, not even their lookout noticed another shadow in the night. Umah continued, better fed than she ever had been in Meridian.

“Foul creature!”

“Get it!”

Two Sarafan ran towards her and Umah tensed, ready to fight. A moment later, she saw the creature they had spotted, and leapt away from the demon’s claws. She ran, leaving the beast to its meal.

There were more demons deeper into the canyons and they were harder to fool than humans. Umah prided herself on being able to outrun and outmanoeuvre any opponent, but by the time she reached the witch’s cottage she was bleeding from a dozen slowly healing wounds. She picked her way warily between the demons’ bodies which lay where they had fallen without a mark of violence on them. Warily, she opened one of the creatures’ veins with a long claw. The blood smelled fresh and wholesome, and she was hungry. This mysterious Seer could wait until her strength was restored. She settled down to feed.

“Enjoy your meal, vampire. It may well be your last.”

Umah looked up at the figure outlined in the light from the open door. Beautiful and inhuman, power radiated off the Seer like nothing she had ever known. She spoke carefully. “I thank you for it. These roads are dangerous, especially for my kind. I bring a message from Vorador.”

“You may leave with it. He and I parted ways long ago.” She turned her back on her and walked back into the cottage.

Umah followed. “I cannot leave empty handed. Many more lives than mine are at stake.”

The Seer looked at her then, or through her. “You walk a path that was not meant for you, and that is a dangerous road indeed. What would you give, I wonder, to have your destiny rewritten?”

“I need nothing but information. There was a device, Vorador said, buried deep underground.”

“The Device? I see you will not be swayed from your path, Umah, but be warned that it ends in death.”

“All paths end in death. All I desire is the fall of the Sarafan. Will you help me?”

The Seer paused for a moment, as if listening to a voice only she could hear. “Yes, I will help you. Time moves quickly, you cannot wait for Kain. The Device must be destroyed. I can take you to it, but first you must drink.”

Umah looked around for any sign of blood, but the Seer held up her wrists. “Drink _my_ blood. It will give you the strength you require.”

Gingerly, suddenly aware of the sheerness of the scanty gauze that covered her, Umah brushed the Seer’s hair back from her neck and bit her as gently as possible. It was hot as living blood, but richer than any human’s, more ancient even than her sire’s, carrying the knowledge and power of millennia.

She pulled back unwillingly as the wound closed, cheeks flushed enough to seem almost human.

The Seer tipped her chin up, forcing her to meet her eye. “You know the sign you must look for.” She said it with utter certainty, as if she were forcing the blood borne memory to the forefront of Umah’s mind.

“Yes.” A circle, quartered. She could see it as clearly as the woman’s face in front of her.

“Good.” She would have continued, but the Seer’s eyes widened, startled by something which had nothing to do with the ordinary senses. “You must go, now! The Sarafan Lord approaches. Pick up Kain’s destiny that he cast away like tangled thread. Heal the world our ancestors left barren.”

Before Umah could think to protest or question, she felt the magic weave around her, and in a moment the Seer and the cottage were gone.

*

Umah could feel her life’s blood spilling out onto the cobbles with every beat of her heart. She had already begged and pleaded, but Kain had taken the stone and left her for dead. The sheer rage at his perfidy and arrogance had warmed her against the cold hands of death, but now even that was fading.

There were only two futures as far as she could see; either the Sarafan Lord would crush Kain and continue his genocidal campaign, or Kain himself would turn on the Cabal as he had on her.

Umah wept, then, not for herself, but for her family. The tears mingled with her blood, so recently taken from the hylden, Magnus, the Seer. She had proven herself, she thought, enough to join in the final battle.

She had proven herself to be a threat to Kain.

Thoughts unravelled slowly, the darkness inside her blooming. Soon she would be walking in the flowers of Persephone’s garden, entering through gates which would then forever close.

The sensation of movement, that was new. It felt like hands picking her up, warm and strong. Then there was blood in her mouth, the richest and sweetest she had ever known. It carried promises of a future far beyond Kain’s doomed empire. This phoenix world would rise from the ashes of his arrogance and failure, and she would witness it. She would help build it.

Was this how the Seer felt all the time – past, present and future sleeting through her mind?

“Yes.” The voice was amused, and fond. “But the real joy is in seeing what can be changed. You will make a good empress.”

With a smile and a kiss, Umah was carried away from her fate and into her future.


End file.
